


time and again

by whisperedwords



Series: Rangers: Reincarnated [1]
Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Canon Adjustment, Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-07
Updated: 2017-09-07
Packaged: 2018-12-24 10:28:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12010830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whisperedwords/pseuds/whisperedwords
Summary: "it's only fair that i should be the one to chase you across ten, twenty-five, a hundred lifetimes until i find the one where you'll return to me." (x)





	time and again

**Author's Note:**

> i have no excuses except reincarnation AUs are my jam and i will always find a way to write them like the trope hoe i am.

Being a power ranger is something that none of the five teenagers had even known about before that fateful night at the mine. It’d been earth-shattering—lives had been changed, relationships had been formed, others had been broken, and overall, there had been an overwhelming sense of familiarity behind it. None of them could place it—after all, in the days after the Rita incident, they realized they had only known each other for two weeks, even though it’d felt like lifetimes. Something beyond their own existence had brought them together, bound them in a pact that had thrust armor upon them and demanded nothing short of their lives in order to protect their beloved town, and that something had bound them up in each other, too. The ranger connection—every element, from the synchronized fighting style to the feedback loop linking their thoughts—was an unpredictable (but not unwelcome) side effect of that binding.

Zordon, when he summons them to the pit on a sweltering summer day, explains this. That is, he explains the _something_ that the five of them had been subconsciously feeling for the past few months of their union. The five of them are settled around the floor of the cave, sitting on various rocks or nearby plateaus that they’d once used to train for their first fight against Rita, chatting quietly amongst themselves, when he appears on his special screen. Unsurprisingly, he immediately begins to talk, his booming voice filling every crevice of the impossible cavern, and the rangers exchange an exhausted glance amongst each other before turning their attention to the former red ranger.

“There has been an awakening.”

“Hold up. Isn’t that the tagline for Star Wars: The Force Awakens?” Billy asks, cocking his head to the side. The others giggle quietly. “Are we in Star Wars now? Are lightsabers a legitimate Ranger weapon? Because I mean, yeah, it would be inefficient all things considered, but also that would be so _cool—_ ”

“Master Billy,” Alpha-5 interrupts, waddling onto the scene in the convenient way he always manages to enter. “This isn’t something to joke about or be taken lightly.”

Billy’s expression shifts into something a little bit more earnest. “I wasn’t joking, Alpha,” he replies, but Zordon clears his throat and everyone falls silent. Jason casts a gaze in his direction sympathetically.

“Off-planet, there has been an insurrection—specifically, at one of the central Ranger headquarters.” At the wide-eyed expression that falls over the five young rangers, Zordon’s form flickers. “You haven’t been there yet because the intensity and frequency of your training hasn’t allowed time for interplanetary travel. While the event itself has been contained and handled appropriately, the damage that has been done is, until further notice, irreversible.”

“What was damaged?” Kim asks. Her eyes are glittering with the idea of an off-planet headquarters meant specifically for warriors like her as she looks up at Zordon’s form.

“Kimberly Hart, the damage was done to the—” he cuts himself off for a moment, measuring his words. “The generator that contains the memories and experiences of past rangers. Because your ranger armor is within you, it is tied into your existence on every level, and everything is documented. This generator was damaged in the midst of the battle, and so the experiences and memories that your armor retains are unable to be regulated.”

“So you’re telling us that you’ve been spying on us for our—for our entire _lives_?!” Zack exclaims, hopping up from his cross-legged position. The twinge of anger in his voice is unmistakable, especially since it’s so rarely used, and the sentiment is reflected on Trini’s face as she gazes up at Zordon, subtle shadows of contempt falling over her features. She uses their psychological link to ease Zack back down to sit next to her, but the two of them remain angry.

“It is part of being a Power Ranger, Zachary. Your life is more than your own, now. You are part of this team, but you are also part of a greater legacy. You were born into a lineage of warriors. Your lives are linked to the lives of thousands of others who fought the same battles that you have and will fight.”

The five of them falter, despite the casual nature of Zordon’s words. “Oh.” The air in the room seems to disappear for a moment as the rangers process the information they’ve just received. Kim is staring at her hands in awe—Trini and Zack have the same look of disbelief painted on their faces. Jason is completely still. Billy...is grinning.

“So you’re saying we’ve got past lives?!” He’s excited, which is more than the others can say for themselves.

“Yes, Billy.” Zordon doesn’t say anything else.

“Holy _moly_.”

“The reason I am telling you this now is because the next time you morph, you will no longer be protected from the surge of experiences you once were. You must be careful. There is nothing I can do to shield you from this or train you for it.” Zordon’s words are met with all-encompassing silence. “I will alert you all when the generator has been repaired and is back to being fully functional, but as the chief engineer was among the list of casualties, I cannot predict when—or if—this repair will be completed.”

“So what do we do until then?” Jason has found his voice at this point, though it’s a bit scratchy, like it’s been rattling around for a long time. “Are we just supposed to...to not _morph_ and protect Angel Grove like we’re meant to?”

“Not at all, Jason Scott. You simply have to keep track of one another when the need for morphing arises. Past incarnations of your ranger selves will be powerful, but being together for those moments will help situate and ground you to the present which you are in.” Jason doesn’t respond.

Alpha chimes in after a few more moments of heavy silence. “I’ll call you all back once you’re needed again! Go go power rangers!” The squawk of his voice brings the rest of the team back into their own, and they stand up, stretching a little before they leave Zordon’s presence. As Jason walks out, he can hear Alpha’s attempt at a whisper from behind.

“Master, do you think they’ll be able to handle the strength of their past lives? I only know of a few rangers that ever—”

“I don’t know, Alpha. I can only hope they do.”

Their words echo dully in Jason’s head as he swims back up to meet his teammates. They’re all looking at each other worriedly; even Billy’s excitement has quieted down into something more cautious, as he rubs his arms like it isn’t 90 degrees outside. The red ranger isn’t really sure what to say to them—frankly, he doesn’t really know if he’s going to be able to process the fact that he’s got a _series_ of other lives that have been hidden away from him.

“So reincarnation is…a thing.” Trini says, her voice flat and deadpan as always. Her hands, previously occupied by fiddling with her beanie, are now shoved into her pockets as she eyes her friends. “And we’re also being spied on always? Cool. Yeah. That’s great.”

Zack reaches out and tries to rest a hand on her shoulder in comfort. “Trin, I don’t think—”

“Do you _ever_ think, Taylor?” She shakes her head, drags a hand over her face in frustration mixed with anxiety she doesn’t want to show. “I’m just—we have to save the world. That’s our job. Why do we have to be watched over, too?”

“Because we’re the defenders of the planet?” Billy offers, attempting to be helpful. Trini looks up and he raises his hands in innocence. “Sorry, sorry, go ahead.”

Kimberly butts in. “Billy’s right, T. We’re responsible for an entire planet. It…it sucks, but it makes sense.” She’s been playing with her own hands this whole time, but Jason can see the spark behind her eyes when she says this. “We’ve got whole other _lives_ we don’t know about, guys! There’s so much we could’ve done—so much we could _be_ —” She reaches out, trying to touch whoever is closest to her in the affectionate way they’d come to know since they were first drawn together. Zack’s hand is clasped in hers in a moment, and she starts to continue her thought when a sharp pain explodes, white hot, at the front of her brain.

* * *

_A dark forest, shadowy, echoes of wildlife filling the cool night air. She’s thrown for a moment, the change in scenery catching her breath in a way that’s a little bit too familiar for her liking. Kim turns around, looking for something identifiable—and there he is. Zack. Except…he looks different? His eyes are the same even though he’s a little taller, a little broader, a little darker. He’s covered in chainmail but he looks at her like she’s something fragile, a look she knows he would never give her—_

_“Zack? Where—what—”_

_“Princess, you can’t be out here. We can’t—” He stops talking, but his hand grabs her own, twines their fingers together in an intimacy she can’t explain, and she doesn’t know where she is but she knows Zack, she swears she does—_

* * *

 

“Kim?” She jerks backwards, her hold on Zack’s hand practically white-knuckled. He’s staring at her with concern, and his eyes look like they had…

“Oh, god.” She releases the black ranger’s hand and turns around, running her hands through her hair. “Guys, that past life thing…it’s not just triggered by morphing. It’s—it’s touch-based.” Everyone but Zack moves closer to her.

“She’s right,” he responds faintly. He hasn’t moved from the spot where Kim had taken his hand. “I saw—I mean, it was a completely…” Zack pauses, tries to collect himself. “It felt so different but I was there _with_ you, Kim. I swear I was.”

“Jesus Christ.” Jason shakes his head slowly. Alpha’s fearful words echo in his head, about being able to handle (more likely, _survive_ ) these visions, and all he can do to tame those fears is to use Zordon’s advice, no matter how strained his relationship with the former red ranger has been. “So what happened?” He pauses. “I mean, it’s your past life, not mine, so you don’t have to share, but like, were you both in the same vision? Could you recognize each other?”

“I don’t…think so.” Kim has turned back around so that she’s facing everyone, but her eyes are locked with Zack’s. “I recognized Zack but he…didn’t seem to realize we were in a past-life vision.”

Zack nods. “I recognized you too,” he continues, “but yeah, it was a very distanced thing. Like, you knew me, but not _me_ me? The me that was in that life.”

“So you had two different visions.” Billy is sitting down, now, crosslegged on the cliffside and looking up at his friends. “You touched each other and experienced two very different but somehow-connected other existences where you were together but only one of you was consciously aware.” He pauses. “Cool.”

“We’re together, though, right? I mean, Zordon said that being together was the best way to handle this was to be together, and we’re together. So maybe we should all sit down and….touch each other?”

“Damn, Jason, if you wanted to get into my pants just say so,” Zack teases, his sudden urge to make Jason blush overpowering his current state of disbelief. Jason, who turns bright red as if on cue, shakes his head and tries to pretend he isn’t embarrassed.

“You know what I mean, Zack. Shut up.”

“Ooh, aggressive banter as foreplay. I like it.”

“You’re a moron,” Trini interrupts, though she’s biting back a smile at Jason’s expense. “Red’s right. We should be together when this first happens. That way, we’ll all know what it feels like and be able to help each other more directly.” She walks back to the cliff’s edge. “Might as well try this at home, right?” With a graceful half-leap, half-dive, she springs off the cliff and back down into the cold waters protecting their ship.

“Hey, I’m with crazy girl,” Zack responds, leaping after her. Kim shares a knowing look with the two remaining boys and together, they leap off the cliff to follow, landing with just enough space between them to not trigger another vision.

Jason walks towards the center of the pit with Trini and Billy, all of them keeping careful distance from each other as they move to sit down. Zack lingers back with Kim, worrying his lip as his hand rests a mere inch from where Kim’s is at her side. Her gaze is a little distant as she watches her teammates, but she can _feel_ Zack next to her, and after a few moments she turns to look at him.

“You guys, make sure nothing happens to us. Yeah?” Jason calls from where he’s sitting, Trini and Billy nodding along. They’ve extended their hands and are hovering, waiting to collide and experience what Kim and Zack had inadvertently discovered.

“Of course, boss-man,” Zack responds. His smile is genuine, though, soft in a way that warms Kim’s heart a little, and she nods in solidarity. Jason meets her eyes for a split second. _I won’t let anything happen to you_ , she thinks, and the feeling of comfort and relief that floods through her (exuded by Jason, mostly, but also echoed in blue and yellow). Kim shifts beside Zack again.

“Here we go,” Trini breathes from across the room. And they clasp hands.

* * *

_The first thing Jason sees is Trini’s cast-down gaze from behind a glass-shielded helmet. She looks up at him, suddenly, as if he’s made some kind of noise. He raises an eyebrow at her, because she seems exactly the same except for the softness in her face, and she moves towards him—floats towards him. (They’re in space, holy christ.) She nods at him once before floating by, towards a console made up of a series of broad, flat screens full of brightly-lit words. He reads them and understands immediately even though he doesn’t—he doesn’t know—_

_“Jason, there’s something wrong. This data doesn’t match what we’ve collected.”_

_“Trini—”_

_“You haven’t called me Trini since we were first launched out here, Jay,” she interrupts, that softness in her face reaching her eyes. It makes his heart pound. “But, hey, let’s not flirt. We need to find the source of this before we get pulled back.”_

* * *

_Trini notices the scar on his arm first. It sends a crawling terror up her spine, at how deep it goes—Billy, her Billy, bleeding like this—_

_“Trinidad,” Billy gasps from his position on the ground, and it’s then that she notices the dirt caked on his cheek, smeared on his tattered shirt, and what—where was she? Where were they? “Trinidad, don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.” He cringes in pain and Trini can feel it like she’s the one bleeding out. She unconsciously rubs her arm where his wound seems to be. “We have to keep going. Tell Jayna to move into place now before the duststorm reaches the city. We have to move as many people towards the next junction before and we need her.”_

_“B-Billy, what?” But Trini realizes she understands exactly what he means, despite the fact that she doesn’t recognize anything but the blue ranger._

_“Trinidad, please—go!"_

* * *

  _A loud crash brings Billy into focus, cold rain driving down into his back and making him shiver. He’s sitting on metal—bleachers, he realizes, though he doesn’t recognize the field where they’re located. In fact, he doesn’t recognize any of the people around him either—there’s a trombone sitting in his hands, the cold brass chilling his fingers. (He doesn’t know how to play trombone?) There’s a shout from further down the bleachers and a man, standing upright on the first row of metal benches holding a conducting stick upright. The people sitting around him are holding instruments, and wait, he’s in a band, he can point out the same little elements he recognizes from Angel Grove’s marching band. When had he joined a band?_

_A cheer echoes across the mystery field, drawing Billy’s attention, and he watches as a football player runs into the endzone, decked out in red, ball raised above his head. “TOUCHDOWN!” Someone next to him shouts, and Billy watches as the runner take off his helmet and look directly at him. How did the guy—_

_Oh. Jason._

* * *

 

Kim immediately recognizes the way Jason, Billy, and Trini all stiffen once their hands touch. She thinks that’s what happened to her—remembers the chill of familiarity crawling under her skin and freezing her into stillness. From the vibe that Zack’s quietly giving off, she thinks he’s experiencing the same thing.

“You okay?” She asks, pointedly not touching him. He bites his lip again, nods.

“Yeah. I was just…thinking, I guess.” Kim raises an eyebrow. “Shut up. I don’t know if we’re allowed to share our past life stories but mine just felt so…real.”

“Oh.” From the way his shoulders sag, she can tell that his vision wasn’t a good one. She doesn’t say anything else. “Hey. Do you think, if we touched again and focused all of our feedback on the present, rather than on the visions, we could…not see them?”

Zack cocks his head to one side, a little smile playing at the corners of his mouth. “You think I can focus on _anything_ that hard?”

“I believe in you,” Kim laughs, swaying closer to him. “Besides, I trust you, too. What’s the worst that could happen? We experience our visions again. They aren’t real. We’re safe in the pit here.” She nods once to herself, as if she’d been trying to convince herself. In front of them, clutching at each other in the center of the pit, Jason, Billy, and Trini are all stiff but fine—Kim can feel it a little in their feedback loop, the mix of emotions, and she’s curious what would happen if they all joined together at the same time. “So. What do you say? Up for a challenge, parkour boy?”

“Oh, parkour boy?” Zack chuckles, but his stance softens, palms open. “Yeah, why not. Let’s do this.”

“One…two…three.” Kim twines her fingers with Zack’s and inhales sharply, trying to focus all of her power into not falling in.

A sharp pain explodes in the front of her brain, fuck, _no_ —

**Author's Note:**

> questions? comments? concerns? hit [me](http://grantgustin.tk) or [abby](http://the-ships-to-rule-them-all.tumblr.com) up!!!!!!


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